My Sculpting Tutorial

Miniature Mentor has released the tutorial I filmed with them and it is now available for download. Basically in this tutorial I sculpt this figure from the ground up.



In the tutorial I start from a metal armature and progress through each stage including underpinning and musculature, clothing, equipment, hair, face, and hands. Throughout is a running commentary describing each step. Don't let the title or description "sculpting with green stuff" fool you. The techniques can be used for any type of putty and I use the same for procreate, brown stuff, and fimo.

The figure is also available through RAFM here so you can actually purchase the figure and have it in hand as a reference when you are viewing the tutorial.

Visit the Miniature Mentor site here to get the tutorial, just scroll down the list until you see my name and the figure.

Below is the excerpt from the miniature mentor site describing the tutorial:




"Miniature Sculpting with James Van Schaik is the ultimate guide to sculpting 32mm miniatures using Green Stuff. Learn from an industry veteran as he takes you through all the steps required to build this Anime Girl.

Miniature Mentor's Secrets of the Brotherhood series takes you inside the hidden art of miniature sculpting. Learn it all in this massive 6 HOUR tutorial. James covers every aspect of the creation of this mini from building the armature, to laying down the under-pinning to building up the muscle masses to finishing and detailing the face, hands, pouch, shorts and blouse."

New Pulp City Figure

Here is the latest press release of the first figure I did for Pulp City. I posted the painted version and the brown. I really love the paint job they did for her. Here you can see three generations of a character. The first is the concept art I got from Pulp Monsters, the photos of the brown I sent them for approval, and then the final painted version they are using to market the figure. To learn more about Pulp City Hero's visit their site here.

Chainmail Part 2

Well I finally got the chailmail photos done to update the chainmail tutorial. i had shot some photos last week but I accidentally erased them so i had to redo (just keep in mind I was a little rushed) them so here they are:

Step 1: Add the putty to the figure and smooth it out with a clay shaper.




Step 2: Add any contours BEFORE you cut the lines in. Use a round tipped clay shaper.

Step 3: Cut your lines or "grid" into the putty. If you want finer mail make the lines closer together, if you want large rings make them further apart.




Step 4: Add the rings by using a pin tool and poking holes side by side down each row. Insert your tool into the putty and rotate it outwards in a circular motion (be very careful!). Stagger or offset the rows to get the "weaved" look.




DONE! This is what it should look like (although this is a real rush job so I ended up pulling it off!)




Try it out on your own and experiment. You may run into other difficulties and if you need any help or have any questions feel free to comment and I'll help if I can. You can check out the previous chainmail tutorial here, it may help explain things as it has diagrams.

Update on Pulp City Stuff

Hi everyone

Here is some stuff I did for Pulp monsters. I had been meaning to get around to posting these awhile ago.

The first one is called Trail for a nice painted shot and his background go here, I had fun with the cape on this guy because it kinda reminded me of Spawn, it was challenging because I had to make it one piece so it would mold.



This guy is called Dead Eye and you can find out more about him here. Being a football fan I really enjoyed this one. I tried to get them to let me put a Steelers logo on him but they wouldn't let me :(. He really reminded me of bloodbowl.



This guy here is called Rook, check out the awesome paint job and background here
I used a mix of Brown Stuff and procreate on these. I like using the brown on armoured pieces so I can scrape it after it dries with a scalpel to get really sharp, clean edges. Maciej at Pulp Monsters uses RTV molds for casting his masters so I can use procreate without worrying about them blowing up during vulcanizing.

Check Back later today or Monday for an update on the Chainmail tutorial. I am doing a figure with chainmail so I will photograph the process and add them to the blog.

New Sculpting Tutorial

Hi everyone,

It's been awhile since my last post but what can I say, sometimes it is hard for me to find the time to update my blog. Thanks to all of you who have been patient.

I've been really busy lately sculpting for many different companies, soon you should see some of the fruits of that labour. I also was busy filming a sculpting tutorial with Miniature Mentor which I'm really excited about. For those of you who aren't familiar with Miniature Mentor here is a link to their site, check it out they do great painting tutorials.

The work I did with them is basically a tutorial where they filmed me sculpting a figure from the ground up. It is shot in amazing Hi Def and I provide a running commentary explaining each step as we proceed. I was amazed at the detail they managed to capture in the film, you can see every nook and cranny with amazing clarity.

The great part about it for me was that I got to sculpt whatever I wanted for a change.


Here is some photos of the figure I sculpted during the tutorial which will be available from Rafm later.

Mary Statue

Hi Everyone,

I got the first prototype for the Mary statue in. Here are some photos of the finished product:



If you are interested in getting a copy email me. They are available finished like in the photos above or bare metal for those of you who want to paint it.

Sculpting Chainmail Tutorial

It's been awhile since I posted a tutorial so I thought I'd do a quick post on sculpting chain mail. The following is an excerpt from my "Basic Sculpting" textbook I wrote awhile back for some sculpting lessons. It has been edited slightly from it's original version.

Step 1

Take some putty about 1mm thick and roughly the same size as the area to be covered, flatten it between your fingers and apply it to the area by gently pushing it onto the figure.

Step 2

Smooth out the putty making an even surface using your sculpting tool and clay shaper. Be sure there are no air bubble’s or seam lines and that the putty is thick enough. If there are any areas showing through you must pinch off a small amount of putty and apply it to the surface.

Step 3

There would normally be a slight hollow under the pectoral muscles. Add this contour by gently running your tipped clayshaper underneath these muscles. You want to create a smooth hollow.

Step 4

Now add the surface details. Start by taking your exacto blade and faintly cutting a grid pattern of horizontal lines about 2mm apart down the area until you cover it. This is your rows of rings.

Now you need to add the rings. Take your pin tool and gently poke holes along each grid line. Continue filling each row with rings until you have completely filled the entire area.

More Reaper

Here is a piece I did for Reaper.I based him after the outlaw Josey Whales.

New Reaper Stuff

I have been doing some stuff for Reaper, here are some photo's of A ghast figure:

Evil Genius and the Corporate Bail Out

Here's a few funny videos that seem fitting realizing some of the news headlines recently.